Concern about plight of unmarried women and children in Saint Lucia

Raise Your Voice Saint Lucia has called on female parliamentarians to provide better representation for unmarried women and children who are constantly disadvantaged.

The organization, which advocates on behalf of females, has said that unmarried women and children are constantly disadvantaged by institutional and legalized discrimination.

Raise Your Voice asserted in a statement that this discrimination is entrenched within the legislative, justice and social systems.

It observed that this country ratified the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in October 1992 and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) in June of 1993.

However Raise Your Voice noted that to date, the local legislation which must be amended to ensure protection and equality for unmarried women and their children is yet to materialize.

The organization observed that at the same time, Saint Lucia continues to stand and shout at United Nations General Assembly meetings.

It said unmarried women and their children are to enjoy equality the OECS Family Law Bills must be enacted.

According to Raise Your Voice, there should be corresponding amendments to the Civil Code as regards to succession laws and the removal of references to illegitimate and legitimate children to achieve parity among all children.

“It is also imperative to amend the Affiliation Act to make child support dependent on means and not a stipulated Two Hundred Dollars ($200.00) per month stipend -In 2016 this is outrageous,” the organization observed.

It said he Government of Saint Lucia must take the necessary steps to create an environment where women and their children can grow to their full potential.

“These goals will not be realized if women continue to receive Two Hundred Dollars ($200.00) to support a minor child for an entire month while the cost of basic food items continues to rise,” the group noted.

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5 Comments

janey

i agree that two hundred dollars a month is outrageous but how many individuals can really afford anything else in this day and age. most cant even afford to eat. instead of providing better opportunities for these mothers or fathers who cant care for those kids you wanna raise the price when half those people cant afford to eat themselves

good more persons will have a crimiinal records for not being able to provide

Anonymous

mother who knows

so that’s how you eliminate the problem of unwanted children in the first place and it’s very unfortunate that so many children from an early age are forced into a situation they don’t deserve,but that problem would not be here if these young girls would keep their legs closed.
I know because I’m a young unwed mother who wishes even though I love my child that I would have had the courage to keep mine shut.